Retailers generally desire to arrange their stores in ways that are convenient for customers. For example, efforts can be made to place products in locations in which it will be intuitive for customers to look for them or where complementary products are arranged together. Retailers also can arrange some products in temporary locations if they are on sale or special offer or otherwise being featured. Determining these factors (i.e., intuitive locations, complementary products, temporary locations for featured products) can be challenging.
Additionally, customer traffic can vary in different parts of stores at different times of day. In the morning, customers may make quick stops to purchase toiletries or items needed for a day at work or school, while in the late afternoon or evening customers may stop to buy groceries and other items for evening meals. Identifying these time-varying traffic patterns also can be useful to retailers but challenging to do.